Truth to Power: Japanese Media, International Media and 3.11 Reportage 権力に真実を：日本メディア、国際メディアと3.11報道 Japanese Translation Available

Truth to Power: Japanese Media, International Media and 3.11 Reportage 権力に真実を：日本メディア、国際メディアと3.11報道 Japanese translation available

David McNeill

Japanese translation is available and Toyota at 50 billion yen. When I started claiming that this amounted to bribery of the media by TEPCO, I was no longer asked to appear on radio shows. Two years after the Fukushima nuclear crisis began two media experts dissect how it has been covered by the media in Japan. Uesugi Takashi is a freelance journalist and author of several books on the Fukushima crisis, including Terebi Wa Naze Heiki De Uso Wo Tsukunoka? (Why does television tell so many lies?). He is also one of the founders of The Free Press Association of Japan (www.fpaj.jp), which attempts to offer an alternative to Japan’s press club system. Ito Mamoru, is professor of media and cultural studies at The bright future portrayed by Tepco Waseda University and author of Terebi Wa Genpatsu Jiko Dou Tsutaetenoka? (How did television cover the nuclear accident?). Ito-san, tell us about your research. You surveyed Japanese television coverage of Uesugi-san, is it true that you have been the first week of the nuclear crisis and banned from the media because of your found that only a single anti-nuclear comments on Fukushima? expert had appeared, right?

Until two years ago I had regular programs on That’s right. Before the disaster, TBS had a television and also radio. Now the only regular history of inviting experts from the (anti- radio that I do is Tokyo FM. Right now I don’t nuclear) citizens’ nuclear information center; do TBS radio (where he had a regular slot). I the director of TBS had personal contact with have no hope of appearing on NHK or on the them. But they also always invited pro-nuclear commercial networks. I used to be a regular or people from the so-called nuclear village, as semi-regular on several TV shows but now not balance. After the crisis, Fuji TV had a guy even one. I was also a regular guest on radio called Fujita Yuko, who has always been anti- shows, but no more. nuclear, but only once. On the afternoon of March 11th he said there was the possibility of a The electric utilities in Japan are major TV meltdown. He was never allowed back on sponsors. I found this out two years ago. They screen. spent 70~88.8 billion yen on advertising that year, ahead of Panasonic with 70 billion yen Some foreign correspondents believe that

1 11 | 10 | 3 APJ | JF the government and the Japanese media disappeared from Japan, so the Japanese had a duty to avoid triggering panic in the people couldn’t get access to it for over a year week after March 11. It was fine for the on the mainstream media. You could still see it foreign media, perhaps, to sometimes on YouTube, but not on TV. report sensationally, but local journalists had a very heavy responsibility. What’s I turned to the European Broadcasting Union, your take on this? which had bought the rights for the coverage. I insisted that on humanitarian grounds the Ito: When the Fukushima Daiichi number one residents should have the information and then reactor exploded, a television camera for decide for themselves what to do after seeing Fukushima Central Television caught the image the image. As soon as it was reported, the and broadcast it two minutes later. The commercial broadcasting companies in Japan reporters were themselves afraid about what demanded that I remove that image from my was happening inside, but there was no way homepage. It has become taboo in Japan. that the head of the station couldn't not report Ito: Really, the government and the media this. In other words, when journalists have were the ones who actually caused the panic. information, even without knowing what it In a crisis like this, they feel the need to speak really means, it’s their responsibility to report in a single voice. But when the government and it. They also reported which way the wind was the media together report that “everything is blowing. Did Fukushima residents panic when safe”, it has the opposite effect of making they heard this video clip? No. Fukushima people worry. The government should Central TV repeatedly asked the big Japanese distribute alternative information and admit broadcasting networks to report this explosion there are a lot of things that are not clear. The quickly. But it took an hour and ten minutes biggest problem during the nuclear crisis was before it was reported on Nihon TV, Fuji TV that there wasn’t that kind of information and NHK. And they all reported it at the same environment. time Uesugi: It was not ordinary residents, but the They are completely different broadcasting government, METI, and the mass media that companies so how did they do that, were panicking. Allowing different views in the reporting at the same time? media is healthy. When there are different views you have to think and can avoid panic. Ito: I don’t think it was a coincidence, but I That’s why I called the Prime Minister’s can’t prove that. In Fukushima, all theResidence during the crisis and asked them to networks were monitoring local broadcasts and let in foreign journalists, and freelance they would have known about the explosion reporters for the Internet and magazines. report. They have some kind of collective There would be different types of information agreement on what to cover. When the three available and no panic. The press clubs were TV stations finally aired the footage at the same causing panic. time, they had almost the same explanation (for the blast): it was a result of artificially releasing Ito: Around March 15th or 16th the central the vapor from a squib valve. government directly asked Fukushima City if they wanted to evacuate the population of Uesugi: There is an image of the first reactor 400,000. The city refused, but the media explosion that ran in the New York Times and decided not to report this because they thought another on the BBC. An hour and ten minutes it would cause panic. The government once after the explosion, the image suddenlyconsidered extending the evacuation zone as

2 11 | 10 | 3 APJ | JF far as Fukushima City. Then later, when the 20 In Japan, the organization has too much power millisieverts issue rose (the government upped and this is getting worse after 3. 11. There is the annual limit of “acceptable” radiation limits no freedom of speech inside the mainstream in schools from 1 – 20 MSv) they didn’t media. There are many people who want to evacuate young children who should most speak out and who know about what is going definitely have been taken out of Fukushima on, but they are censored. and Koriyama cities. Uesugi: I think the nuclear sensationalism is Why do you think journalists for the the fault of the Japanese government and the mainstream media in Japan stayed out of press clubs for not letting the foreign media the 20-km evacuation zone, despite the into their press conferences, and for not pressure for scoops about what was going making their reports accurate enough. I think on there? the foreign media did better than the Japanese media, in the sense that they shared different Ito: One of my friends once said, “Japan’s voices. For example the German and journalism is compliance journalism. Each Norwegian media were among the first to channel tells the people that it is safe to stay report the radiation map. The Washington Post near the area while they tell their own was the first to show the diagram of the employees that it’s forbidden to report within meltdown and foreign journalists reported 30km of the plant because it is dangerous. inside the evacuation areas. There is a real double standard, but employees cannot go against that rule. Ito: In a transnational crisis like this, even scientists have very different views onwhat Uesugi: Members of the press club and the should be done. The media should provide government were openly saying: “My wife’s scientific data to the people and the hometown is in Kyushu so I sent her back there” or: “I let my child go to Singapore.” government, and help make more efficient th decisions. But the media have not learnt any They were doing this from March 15 . But as Ito-san has said, on TV and in the newspapers, skills on how to use communication technology they were saying that everything was safe. and simply assumed it was safe when the Even among politicians, there were some who government said it was safe, just like in the bad sent their families out of Japan. old days.

Looking back, what are the key mistakes Uesugi: We have to be modest about the truth made by the Japanese media and the and admit which media was wrong and which foreign media? was right, otherwise journalists end up doing the same thing as the government: making a Ito: I think the British newspaper, The Sun, mistake, not admitting the mistake and hiding carried some awful reports, very sensational. the mistake. Unless this system is improved, I Some of the foreign press exaggerated the don’t think anything will change. In the end, crisis. We have to look at differences. There is a people who are not told the truth will not trust huge difference between German TV and the media. We have to make a proper accident Japanese TV for example. In Japan, scientists investigation and confront our own mistakes. who come on TV work for universities and are naturally close to the government. In Germany, Recommended citation: David McNeill, "Truth more and more scientists collect independent to Power: Japanese Media, International Media scientific knowledge and get involved with anti- and 3.11 Reportage," The Asia-Pacific Journal, nuclear power movements or the Green Party. Vol 11, Issue 10, No. 3, March 11, 2012."

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David McNeill is the Japan correspondent for • Makiko Segawa, After The Media Has Gone: The Chronicle of Higher Education and writes Fukushima, Suicide and the Legacy of 3.11 for The Independent and Irish Timeshere newspapers. He covered the nuclear disaster for all three publications, has been to• Nicola Liscutin, Indignez-Vous! Fukushima ten times since 11 March 2011, and ‘Fukushima,’ New Media and Anti-Nuclear has written the book Strong in the Rain (with Activism in Japanhere Lucy Birmingham) about the disasters. He is an Asia-Pacific Journal coordinator. • Philip J. Cunningham, Japan Quake Shakes TV: The Media Response to Catastrophe here Articles on related subjects

• Mainichi Shimbun, The Black Box of Japan's • Tony McNicol and David McNeill, Is Press Nuclear Power here Freedom Being Eroded in Japan? here

• Reporters Without Borders on Discrimination • David McNeill, Freedom of the Press U.S. Against Freelance Journalists in Japan here Style on Okinawa here